Welcome to the website of the Digital Media Law Project. The DMLP was a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society from 2007 to 2014. Due to popular demand the Berkman Klein Center is keeping the website online, but please note that the website and its contents are no longer being updated. Please check any information you find here for accuracy and completeness.

Primary links

Legal Resources for Digital Media

Search form

Search

Evaluating Homeowners and Renters Insurance Policies

Homeowners insurance
policies (and renters insurance policies) typically provide some
personal liability coverage that may cover claims brought against you
arising from your online activities. As a general rule, however, the
more you expose yourself to potential claims, the more you should
consider coverage beyond your homeowners policy. This is especially
true if your online activities even arguably constitute a business.

In general, homeowners insurance policies do not refer specifically to claims arising from online activities, but this does not
rule out the possibility of coverage for such claims. When evaluating
policies, you should pay particular attention to two factors: (1) the
types of potential claims covered by the policy, and (2) the scope of
the policy's business activity exclusion.

Want to help us create a more comprehensive review? We are hoping to
collect homeowners and renters insurance policies from every carrier
and every state. Please contact us if you would be willing to send us a copy of your policy (with any personal information redacted, of course).

Legal Claims Potentially Covered by Homeowners and Renters Insurance

Defamation and Privacy Claims

In the course of your online activities, you may be sued for defamation, invasion of privacy, or intentional infliction of emotional distress. These claims may be covered by your insurance policy if it includes coverage for personal injury
claims. Personal injury coverage is not dependent on physical injury,
and commonly includes (among other things) claims for defamation
(including libel and slander), "humiliation," and invasion of privacy.
For more information about defamation, privacy, and intentional
infliction of emotional distress claims, see the Risks Associated with Publication section of this guide.

Of the five policies we reviewed, only the Erie and Chubb
policies cover personal injury claims. The Chubb policy also includes
"shock", "mental anguish", and "mental injury" under its definition of
personal injury.

Copyright, Trademark, and Other Intellectual Property Claims

You may also be sued for copyright or trademark infringement in
the course of publishing your work online. These claims, as well as
other Intellectual Property
claims, do not appear to fall within most homeowners insurance policy
definitions, and it is therefore unlikely that your homeowners
insurance will cover you if you are sued for copyright or trademark
infringement. For more information about copyright and trademark, see
the Intellectual Property section of this guide.

Injuries you "intend" or "expect" and Punitive Damages

None of the policies we reviewed provide coverage for injury
that the insured "intends" or "expects." Additionally, none of the
policies covers punitive damages. This may be particularly relevant to
claims involving defamation, where plaintiffs generally seek punitive
damages.

Bodily Injuries and Property Damage

All five homeowners insurance policies we reviewed cover claims involving bodily injury as well as property damage.

In general, bodily injury is defined as "bodily harm,"
"sickness," or "disease." The Erie policy also includes "mental
anguish" in its definition of bodily injury. Additionally, each policy
states that coverage for bodily harm extends only to situations where
the injury results from an "occurrence," which is defined as "an
accident."

Given these constraints, if your policy is limited to coverage
of bodily injury claims, you will likely not be covered for claims
against you that arise from your online activities.

Business Pursuits Exclusion

All five policies we reviewed exclude coverage for claims arising out of the insured's business activity.
There are differences in the ways that state laws treat this exclusion,
as well as important variations in the policies themselves. We discuss
the different state approaches in the Insurance Exclusions for Business Pursuits section of this guide.

In order to understand the business activity exclusion in the
five policies, we looked at: (1) its definition of "business" and (2)
the scope of its exclusion.

1. Definition of "Business"

Although the Chubb policy states that it does not cover damages
arising from the insured's "business pursuits" it does not define what
a "business pursuit" is. The Erie policy defines "business" as "any
full-time, part-time or occasional activity engaged in as a trade,
profession or occupation." The Amica Mutual, OneBeacon, and Providence
Mutual policies contain identical definitions: "A trade, profession or
occupation engaged in on a full-time, part-time or occasional basis . .
. or [a]ny other activity engaged in for money or other compensation."

The Amica Mutual, OneBeacon, and Providence Mutual policies
further state that an "activity engaged in for money or other
compensation" will not be characterized as business (and therefore will
not be excluded from coverage) if:

(1) the insured received $2,000 or less in the year prior to the start of the policy, or
(2) the insured engaged in a volunteer activity, and only
received payment of expenses incurred in the performance of the
volunteer work.

2. The Scope of the Business Pursuits Exclusion

The five policies that we reviewed vary a great deal in how narrowly they apply the business pursuits exception:

Chubb's coverage is the most favorable to the insured, as it does not
exclude "incidental business at home" in which the insured has no
employees and has gross revenues of $5,000 or less in any one year.

Erie's coverage is also somewhat favorable, covering
"activities normally considered non-business" as well as all
"occasional business activities." Whether blogging, for example, is
"normally considered a non-business" activity is an open question.

Amica Mutual and Providence Mutual exclude virtually
all liability "arising out of or in connection with a business" unless
the participant is under 21 years old, self-employed, employs no other
employees, and works either on a part-time or occasional basis. This
exception to the exclusion primarily applies to jobs like baby-sitting
and newspaper delivery.

OneBeacon's policy excludes coverage for all liability "arising out of or in connection with a business."

Increasing Your Insurance Coverage

If it seems likely that your online activities will fall under the
business pursuits exclusion of your policy, you should consider
purchasing Media Liability Insurance.

Otherwise, given the limitations of basic bodily injury
coverage, if you engage in substantial online activity you should look
for a policy that includes personal injury coverage. Such a policy will
likely be more expensive, but the coverage for injuries like defamation
may be well worth the additional cost should someone bring such a claim
against you.

A more comprehensive alternative is to purchase an umbrella policy as recommended by the (not impartial) Insurance Information Institute,
which states that such coverage typically begins in the range of
$150-$300 annually. The primary effect of umbrella policies, which do
cover personal as well as bodily injury, is to increase your coverage
cap. Given the high cost of legal services, this may be worthwhile even
if your policy already covers personal injury. Some umbrella policies
also augment your coverage in other ways. The OneBeacon umbrella policy
we reviewed, for example, eliminates the punitive damages exclusion;
this might be crucial if you are sued for defamation, for which
punitive damages are often sought.

We are looking for contributing authors with expertise in media law, intellectual property, First Amendment, and other related fields to join us as guest bloggers. If you are interested, please contact us for more details.

Disclaimer

Information in this guide is based on general principles of law and is intended for information purposes only; we make no claim as to the comprehensiveness or accuracy of the information. It is not offered for the purpose of providing individualized legal advice. Use of this guide does not create an attorney-client or any other relationship between the user and the Digital Media Law Project or the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Newsletters

Main menu

Copyright 2007-17 Digital Media Law Project and respective authors. Except where otherwise noted,content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License: Details.Use of this site is pursuant to our Terms of Use and Privacy Notice.